Garmentary

 

Photo by Mark Seifred

Coffee anyone? Here I am in Vancouver B.C., sporting a Christine Jonson Easy Coat I just finished, and wore for the first time on this fantasticly breezy fall day. I started on it some time ago, the first part goes fast, but the finishing can be slower and fraught. I started it on one sewing machine and finished it on another, my old Pfaff gave up last year. The new Janome is easy to sew with. I am always excited at the beginning of the process of making something. Challenges arise and are dealt with and this is the meat of the work and it's difficulty can be tiring because it requires great focus but once my brain gets onto solving something, even when there is no progress, it grinds away until the task is completed to my satisfaction. I think this aspect of the creative process is what stymies a lot of would be creatives. The work! And the uncertainty of the outcome.

The thing I love the most about sewing is how made things can be altered and remade, how fabric can be re-positioned, re-sewn, spliced, extended, shortened. There is so much potential in every garment and you never quite know how you'll feel about it until it is done. Making takes faith. I bought the graphic fabric for this coat cheaply at Fabricland in Abbotsford, B.C. I am not sure if it is apparel fabric but there you go, that's how I used it. I was drawn to the scale of the pattern. The fabric is very slick and hangs well but it's prone to unravelling so I will have to do some work on its interior to make it look tidy, the interfacing I used on the collar was too thick and so I have a lot of bulk around my shoulders to cut out, and as you can see in the picture the right lapel easily folds open so I need to secure it at the pocket level. I could easily line the coat but that would make it a heavier garment and I think the single layer works well for those mid temperature days in Spring and Fall. 

All in all it feels like a good garment and I enjoyed wearing it with my black jeans custom made in India at Makeyourownjeans.com and black linen shirt from the Gap a few seasons ago. My necklace is self made with stones that were a gift from South Africa. Shoes by Asics. I'm quite pleased with this general look for almost any season. I have written about it here Why I'm a Sewcialist. Both my husband and my father made comments on the coat which always feels good. Dad even gave me the feel the fabric treatment. 

Photo by Mark Seifred

From our recent trip to Bend, Or. We stayed at McMenamins Grand Lodge on the way home. This Liverpool Tunic by Amy Butler in one of her midwest modern designs from 2011 has worn well. A patterned shirt that never disappoints. I have a dress in the same fabric which I have worn often. I should learn to smile in pictures more, I really was having a very nice time there, enjoying my tea and writing my morning pages. Pants are me-made, shoes are very dusty.

After 30 Years I planted California Poppies

 

California Poppies in Washington

Hi friends! I hope this post finds you all very well and enjoying success in your lives.

It's been some time since my last post so I thought I'd start off easy. I bring you flowers. The iconic California Poppy, a botanic reminder of my time in the Golden State (1983-1994). I planted cal poppies this summer, and it's the first time I have ever had any success with them in 30 years here. I've tried seeds wild sewn, and also seeds in trays, started indoors. This year I bought two pots of starts from Sunseed Farm and despite making them hold in their pots for much longer than they might have liked, the plant took off once it was in the ground. It is literally in the hottest, driest, deadest soil in my yard. The poppies are thriving. 

The poppies have me thinking about my time in Los Angeles and the yards and gardens I had, and the gardens I visited during my decade there. Recently I decided I'm giving myself 10 years to turn this garden into something interesting. A garden is never finished I would say, it is always in need of care. The garden I am planning currently is developing and I am trying to approach it with intention and methodology, with sensitivity to native species and culture, while respecting and nurturing the land. And it must be a garden that can withstand climate change!

I just finished reading Rebecca Solnit's "Orwell's Roses" so I'm little inspired by flowers and what they mean. Earlier this year I read two books on history of art that focused solely on women. Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art by Lauren Elkin, and Katy Hessel's The Story of Art Without Men. This has been my research recently, to identify female artists to look up to, especially Canadian ones. I'm embarrassed by how few I know but I am equally pleased by who I am finding. Rebecca Belmore's work falls into that category. 

Garden Plan 2022

The biggest thing my yard, garden, property gives me, is a place of calm and meditation, the place I do my work. I am not interested in or can I even imagine a finished thing down to every plant. Like many things I am letting the whole thing evolve as it should. I'm establishing more interesting lines of sight from key spots on the property, the view from the place you first enter the clearing and the view from the living room west into the forest which currently contains too many obstacles for my liking. The years I spent living and working  here have informed what I want to look at, how the place might look and feel. I have different concerns now than I did 30 years ago when I first began.

The orange yellow poppy is warm and bold, with its impossibly delicate stem and flashy head, it survives at the roadside, and the seaside in wind that batters it, sun that feeds it. It is not a passive flower either, closing its petals to survive cooler nights. Succulent looking, its exquisite stem structure  suggests serpentine ironwork, as it stretches across the ground. 

Dad at home

My sister planted fantastic orange Marigolds along the strip of wall between dad's house and the next house. The Marigolds are huge and frothy growing in amongst strawberries, some decorative grass, Heather and this and that, that my sister pulled from here and there. It's part of the process of being at his house with him as his companions and caregivers. It's something I am incredibly proud to be able to be involved in. He is aging at home and doing very well with our gentle support. I just spent two days with him. We walk around his neighborhood, I point out plants and flowers as we go, we casually monitor progress of all that grows near our path.